Forrester conducted survey with 170 ECM decision makers to get a feel for where the ECM market may be headed in 2010. And based on the results, it's still a market in demand. The survey revealed at 72% of organizations are planning on spending money on ECM in the new year.

Here's a break down of the top three ECM drivers:

Keeping these drivers in mind, Forrester also found there are a couple of key areas of ECM that will provide the most productivity gains for these organizations: web content management, records management and digital asset management.

ECM Suites are Not All That

Another interesting finding in the report is that although ECM suites are heavily used in organizations today, the reality is there is often more than one ECM, or component of an ECM in use. So although 59% want to settle on a single suite for tactical purposes, 51% actually have three or more ECM solutions in place.

What this means is that there really isn't a single solution that meets all needs, despite all efforts of ECM suite vendors. There are still struggles, particularly around the area of rich media, and we'll likely continue to see point solutions supporting these needs for some time to come.

Also note that although there seems to be a certain amount of dissatisfaction with an ECM suite (27% expressed dissatisfaction), most organizations would continue to use it instead of spend the time and money switching to another one.

SharePoint as an ECM

It's not that we want to particularly point out the failings that come from grassroots growth of SharePoint in an organization, but the report continues to demonstrate issues still exist.

This really isn't a problem related to the platform itself, but more to how organizations have chosen to implement it -- or let organically grow.

SaaS and Open Source Are Moving Up

According to the report, more organizations are interested in SaaS and open source solutions, particularly in the areas of WCM and DAM. This is because solutions tend to be external facing and there's not as much concern about the wrong content getting out to the wrong crowd.

ROI is a Challenge

It seems like no matter where you turn, determining ROI for anything is challenging at the best times. But it's demonstrating solid ROI that helps drive further investment in solutions. Forrester found that 49% of respondents can't estimate ROI for their ECM.

Key Takeways

What are the key takeways from this report?

Enterprise content management needs to focus on the huge growth of content in an organization and provide ways to support this content through sharing and search.

Rich media is big part of the content that needs to be maintained, so DAM functionality will be important.

There may be struggles with SharePoint, but it's continued use is clearly demonstrating areas where ECM solutions need to focus (like collaboration).

CMIS support should be an important focus for ECM as the need to integrate and support multiple ECMs within a single organization will continue.

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